It can be assumed that the autograph score still existed until some point in time after the 1st performance. It, along with the doublets of the instrumental parts (1st & 2nd violins and untransposed continuo,) were lost early on. Other existing scores in manuscript form from the 19th century are based upon the original set of parts and not the autograph score.

The Original Set of Parts:

These were presented to the St. Thomas School by Bach’s widow at the time of his death. They are now located in the Bach-Archiv in Leipzig.

The fact that there are fewer copyists involved in copying out these parts is misleading since other copyists would certainly have been used to copy the doublets (usually copying from the already existing parts.) Bach personally copied the brass parts from the score (which probably did not exist in the score and most likely were copied directly from the vocal parts in the score.) 3 other copyists were involved in copying out the remaining parts with Bach correcting, revising and adding details as necessary.

Date of Composition:

Dürr has placed the 1st performance as having taken place on May 21, 1725. This is based on the type of paper used and the copyists involved. In particular, Copyist 1 appears only in 1725 and not before or after this year. Also, there is a connection with all the other cantatas using a text by Mariane von Ziegler. These cantatas belong only to the 1725.

Text:

The text for this cantata was printed in Christiane Mariane von Ziegler’s text “Versuch | In | Gebundener | Schreib-Art | Leipzig, | Bey John. Friedrich Brauns sel. Erben, 1728” pp. 262-3. Since the cantata was composed 3 years earlier than the actual printing of the text, it is assumed that Bach made whatever changes in the text occur in the cantata.

The introductory mvt. is the 1st verse of the chorale with the same name by Salomo Liscov from „Christlichen Frauen-Zimmers geistlicher Tugend-Spiegel“ Leipzig, 1675 p. 691 with the title “Dein Jesus liebt, Ist nie betrübt.” There are 9 verses for this chorale. The text of this introductory chorale is connected to the Gospel for the 2nd Day of Pentecost (John 3, 16-21.) Mvt. 3 contains the words “Er kam nicht nur, die Welt zu richten” which relate to John 3:17: “Denn Gott hat seinen Sohn nicht gesandt in die Welt, daß er die Welt richte.” Mvt. 5, John 3:18 also connects with the Gospel for 2nd Day of Pentecost, but the differences between the cantata text and the Bible text are negligible. Another biblical connection is a reference in mvt. 3 “Ich bin mit Petro nicht vermessen” that can be related to Acts 10:26 and at the same time connects with the Epistle for this special 2nd Day of Pentecost (Acts. 10: 42-48.) The lack of a final chorale has led to the question whether the text is complete, but this seems to have been Ziegler’s intention.

The Parodies:

Bach used earlier compositions as the basis for this cantata. All of the predecessor mvts. were derived from the secular cantata BWV 208 “Was mir behagt, ist nur die muntre Jagd” first performed on February 23, 1713(?) for the birthday of Duke Christian von Sachsen-Weißenfels.
Here are the connections: